The Glitter Unicorn, all Stardust and Sparkle
I want to talk about this subject from what I observed in my professional career. I don't think "Unicorns" are unique from the design world. When I worked as an infographic designer for a news organization, I remember that the journalists were asked to interview, write articles and critique columns, take pictures, and laid out the pieces for the newspaper and the news website. Some of them were good at two of those requirements, sometimes three of them. But I am yet to find one that was good at all those. On top of that, some were asked to work as translators and interpreters.
Many companies will try to reduce the workforce (thus save some money) and ask for someone that fulfills as many roles as possible. In our business, the unicorn is good at UX design, visual design, and who writes code. This is an error for several reasons:
1- People cannot be consistently good at all those three. Even if you start at the same level of knowledge of those three, one or two will end resenting because, as professionals, we will have a hard time keeping up to date with all of them.
2- Companies that ask for unicorns ask for someone who, when leaving, will bring their knowledge with them and be challenging to replace. It is smarter to build a team of specialists.
3- Why will a unicorn work for you get paid less than a programmer? Let’s be honest; they can run their agency and build their startup. A real unicorn is expensive and probably will want to work for themselves.
4- An ad that asks a designer to fill too many rolls will turn them off—overall, the good ones. A company is missing the opportunity to have someone great on board. “A singular aspect of the Great Unicorn Quest that should give you pause is the implication that user experience as a discipline isn’t significant enough to be a sole focus.” by Wayne Greenwood
After I laid out my opinion about the unicorns, I want to talk about what I think is a realistic expectation to ask from a UX designer. I believe that as UX designers, we need to be familiar with those three rolls. I think a UX designer must have a basic knowledge of markup language and visual design. I see us as the glue that binds all those roles and keeps them working smoothly. “…close collaboration between a stellar coder and a top-shelf designer—along with a solid product manager—is the fast track to a world-beating product.” by Wayne Greenwood
Someone needs to be the team member that understands other’s functions. “While I believe UX Architects should not be making final pixel-perfect images or creating Html, they should have the final say of the overall product.” by Dave Lull.
I found this extract very insightful “Braden Kowitz, a partner at Google Ventures, laments that hiring a designer is hard enough -- but looking for a unicorn might be a fruitless pursuit.” from The Unicorn Designer Dilemma: How To Avoid It. by Patrick
Neeman @ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/unicorn-designer-dilemma-how-avoid-patrick-neeman/
Finally, I will want to define myself as a specialist. I worked as a visual designer for many years, and I like to learn markup languages just for fun, but I want to work as a UX specialist and set those other two roles aside. I want them to be things that I know and like, but I don’t need to keep up working on and up to date. Useful skills to build teams and understand other roles.
I always liked the unicorn as a legendary creature, but I think glitter should be banned.
